Exercise devices that raise and incline the user are well known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,252, for example, demonstrates an apparatus that can be placed on a riser or a staircase, thereby raising and inclining the user. The user can only adjust the incline, however, by raising the apparatus to the next riser of the staircase, thereby limiting the amount of adjustment. Unfortunately, the apparatus also requires the user to have access to a staircase that won't be used during the exercise routine. Another disadvantage of this apparatus, however, is the inability to easily adjust the width of the grips to allow for different sized users, or to allow target training of specific parts of the muscles exercised.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,573 reveals a set of three handles ran between a pair of triangular endplates, wherein each handle is placed a different distance from the edge of the endplates. The user can then grip one of the three handles and thereby adjust the incline off the floor, depending on which of the handles used. The variation between the lowest lift and highest lift is thereby dependent on the size of the endplates, and the placement of the handles within the endplates. Unfortunately, in order to have the opportunity for a large inclination, the endplates must be very large, thus making storage a practical issue. Furthermore, the handles are placed parallel to the floor or other resting surface, such that as the inclination angle gets large, undue stress is placed on the wrists and hands due to the handles being at oblique angles to the wrists.
The apparatus described in U.S Pat. No. 5,226,868 provides the user the option adjusting the width of the grips by placing the grips in any of a series of receiver holes. This design, however, does not provide a means of elevating the user to decrease resistance, and it maintains the handles parallel to the floor, thereby putting the wrists of the user in unhealthy angles.
Finally, the apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,802 provides a pair of handles that are able to rotate in a circle around an axis perpendicular to the floor in an attempt to ease the tension provided on the hands, wrists, and arms. It also provides the user the ability to change the width between the two handles to allow for various sized users, as well as spot training desired muscles.
There still remains, however, a need for an apparatus that can provide a tool easily adjustable for advancing degrees of difficulty while maintaining proper hand placement to prevent undo hand, wrist, and arm strain.